American Ethos and the Revolutionary Option

Extract

I confess at the outset that I speak of America and the revolutionary option as one who wishes to be informed by, and faithful to, the biblical tradition. I use "confess" here not as an admission of weakness, but as one who would be a "confessor," clearly positioning himself in terms of the myriad beginning points one might choose for serious personal statement. I am increasingly unhappy with an. intensified and highly politicized atmosphere in which one is pressed to distinguish his position by relating it to the prevailing, and usually false, alternatives of political debate. Christians and Jews who take their religious tradition seriously must demonstrate more emphatically the connection between their political posture and the referents in that tradition. For me this means discovering political commitment and style that square with the gospel of the oncoming Kingdom of God, which is what I think the tradition is all about.